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An example of easy model usage - El Forum - 05-30-2009

[eluser]drewbee[/eluser]
Hey all,

As the continuing process to make things even more easier and allow flexibility, but conform to some kind of standard I have started doing the following in regards to models. Basically, every model will have some kind of get,update,insert and delete. Now, I know a lot of people like to be very specific with their models, but I do not like that. I like to have more control in the controller over what is being used in the model.


As another point of focus and tracking, almost every table I like to have a created and updated date, a who (account id of editor), and a deleted flag. I very rarely have a table without these, so even if it is just a reference table, I include these as well 'just because'.


So, first and foremost, let's extend CI's model and set our constant get, update, insert, and delete methods.

Code:
<?php
class CIEXT_Model extends Model
{
    var $table = '';
    
    function __construct()
    {
        parent::__construct();    
    }
    
    function get($where = null, $order_by = null)
    {
        $this->db->select('*');
        $this->db->from($this->table);

        if ($where)
        {
            $this->db->where($where);    
        }
        
        if ($order_by)
        {
            $this->db->order_by($order_by);    
        }
        
        $query = $this->db->get();
        
        return $query;
      }
    
    function insert($insert = array())
    {
        if (!is_array($insert))
        {
            return FALSE;    
        }
        
        $insert['created'] = date("Y-m-d H:i:s", time());
        $insert['updated'] = date("Y-m-d H:i:s", time());

        $insert['who'] = $this->session->userdata('account_id');
        
        $this->db->insert($this->table, $insert);
        return $this->db->insert_id();    
    }
    
    function update($set = array(), $where = array())
    {
        if (!is_array($set) || !is_array($where))
        {
            return FALSE;
        }    
        
        $set['updated'] = date("Y-m-d H:i:s", time());
        
        return $this->db->update($this->table, $set, $where);        
    }
    // We still have the option to do an actual data delete if we really
    // want too... pass true to the second parameter.
    function delete($where = null, $hard_delete = FALSE)
    {

        $set = array('deleted' => '1');
        
        if ($hard_delete == TRUE)
        {
            return $this->delete($this->table, $where);    
        }
        else
        {
            return $this->update_exercise($this->table, $where);
        }

    }    
}
?>

So now, when creating a new model we simply have to specify the table name

Code:
class Accounts extends CIEXT_Model
{
    function __construct()
    {
        parent::__construct();
        $this->table = 'accounts';
    }

    function get_inactive()
    {
        $where = array('account_status' => 0);
        return $this->get($where);
    }
}

Usage, of course

Code:
$this->load->model('accounts');

// Get an account
$where = array('account_id' => '3423');
$accounts->get($where);

// Get inactive
$accounts->get_inactive();

Obviously this setup works strictly for the base tables, and will have to be more robust when dealing with joinings, but it gets rid of a lot of repetition for the same functionality.

Thoughts on this?

An example of easy model usage - El Forum - 05-30-2009

[eluser]Dam1an[/eluser]
I used to do my models in a very similar way, but it then got too complex when I started to add joins etc Sad

I also had it so that I didn't even need to create a wrapper model, but could just create the base model passing the table name to the constructor and assigning it to the relevant variable name

An example of easy model usage - El Forum - 05-30-2009

[eluser]drewbee[/eluser]
Yup. This was intended strictly for the base table queries. It at least keeps 4 functions out of the main model.

On a side note, did you end up creating a separate model for referential tables? I still havn't decided and found the exact way I want to do this yet. It either goes into the the parent model, or it's own. I could see the parent being ok, as long as that table didn't exist to multiple tables.

.... Organization sucks. Smile What happened to the good ol days where everything was plopped into one file? hahaha...

An example of easy model usage - El Forum - 05-30-2009

[eluser]Dam1an[/eluser]
The way I do it (well, in most cases) is I have object tables and relational tables
Object tables is a 'thing' and has an auto ID
A relational table is... well, self explanatory really

I only have models for the object tables, and they then have methods which deal with the relational tables
So if I have an accounts, users and account_users table, I'd have Account_model and User_model and the relationship would be Account_model (method would be get_users)

Although every now and again it just seem to logical to have the relationship in the other table (or maybe in both :-S)